Released: 10/27/17

Weezer has never had a perfect discography, with most of their albums falling flat when compared to their breakout self-titled debut, also known to fans as “The Blue Album.” The band fell out of favor with a lot of their fanbase following the release of 2009’s “Raditude,” an album created to appeal to a more mainstream audience, going as far as having a Lil Wayne feature on it. 2010’s “Hurley” only further alienated their fans. 2014’s “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” acted as an apology to the fanbase, and was a solid effort that brought the band back to its roots. 2016’s self-titled effort, also known as “The White Album” was considered by many to be their best work since their debut, and felt like the band was finally finding their groove again.

As a lifelong fan of Weezer, “Pacific Daydream,” simply put, is a mediocre disappointment and another betrayal to their fanbase. This most recent effort from the band is a competently made album, but it is once again another grab for the mainstream audience. The most egregious example of this from “Pacific Daydream” is the pop anthem single, “Feels Like Summer,” which is hardly recognizable as a song from the band that wrote “Buddy Holly” or “Say It Ain’t So.” “Beach Boys” and “Happy Hour” fall into the same pitfalls, with nothing uniquely “Weezer” to them besides their incoherent lyrics. The opening track “Mexican Fender” sounds like nothing more than a B-Side from “White Album,” and that’s exactly what it is.

Fortunately, the second half of the album is more standard Weezer-fare. “Weekend Woman” is by far the standout from “Pacific Daydream,” giving us a taste of the power chord rock the band is best known for. “QB Blitz” and “Sweet Mary” are decent tracks, but again, both feel like B-Sides from a better album. “Any Friend of Diane’s” would be an excellent closer, but Rivers Cuomo inexplicably develops a pronounced and distracting lisp, heard nowhere else on the record.

The most disappointing part of “Pacific Daydream” is what the album isn’t. Following “Everything Will Be Alright in the End” and “White Album,” there were huge expectations for the group. It felt like Weezer had entered a golden age, and Cuomo would be back on track to writing the songs that fans love most, but somehow missed what made those albums critically successful. Between the late October release for a “Summer” album, the general B-side feel to it, and the the long awaited self-titled “Black Album” on the horizon, everything about “Pacific Daydream” feels off, almost as if it wasn’t intended for a full album release at all.

4/10

Pros:

• “Weekend Woman” is a solid, catchy track

• Second half of “Pacific Daydream” is a marginal improvement over the first

Cons:

• The album is more of a collection of B-Sides than an actual album

• Misses the marks of a good Weezer album